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1

General Discussion / Re: Vanilla map size

« on: January 27, 2022, 12:34:23 PM »

Another issue with the normal map is that the fringes are kind of useless to survey, because the isolation penalty to accessibility makes the colony unprofitable compared to a colony close to the core. Even if you find a cryosleeper, or restore a [redacted], or find a perfect planet, if they're too far away from the core you're better of settling somewhere else. I'm aware that there is some kind of bonus to accessibility from having multiple colonies in the same system, but it's really hard to tell how much accessibility you gain from doing that.

2

General Discussion / Re: Ship cost and everything around it (ranting a bit)

« on: January 07, 2022, 08:20:50 AM »

Judging by how incredibly advanced domain tech actually was it's fairly believable to say that the sector is a backwater compared to what it was before. The [Ultra-redacted] stuff implies that the domain wasn't just a vast spacefaring civilisation, they were running around with weapons that breaks the laws of physics, and the gates and their planets were fueled by the hypershunts (which harvest energy directly from stars and then transport said energy light-years away). Compared to that, fusion reactors and shells are very antiquated.

And the vast fleets of space ships demand nanoforges to be built, but as far I can tell no one actually knows how to make more, and as such the sector is definitely in a downward spiral, because the current technology base has an expiration date. The sector will keep dwindling as long as they cannot make new nanoforges, because the forges are the backbone of all their industry. Without the nanoforges the sector can only produce d-modded garbage, and the supply of heavy machinery, supplies, heavy weaponry and ship hulls will dwindle away to nearly nothing (as even a damaged nanoforge increases the output by one unit, which is implied to be a factor ten for every unit, so a world with a pristine nanoforge produces a thousand times more ships than a world without it).

I don't think humanity will disappear from the sector entirely, but right now one of the most important part of the economy, the manufacturing, is slowly disappearing and as such the sector is in a decline until either someone rediscovers how to create nanoforges or the sector loses all their nanoforges and has to rebuild their civilisation without them.

3

General Discussion / Re: Are non-aggressive officers useful?

« on: October 27, 2021, 06:12:26 AM »

Personally I only use steady officers, because I just want a fleet that can keep itself alive and distract the enemy while I zoom around on a safety-overrides Aurora and blast the hell out of everything. If I see a good opportunity for my fleet I just use the eliminate/engage command, but otherwise I'm just happy that my fleet isn't getting itself killed on Radiants all the time.

4

General Discussion / Re: [0.95a-RC15] (To be) Exhaustive Guide on how to fight [Redacted]

« on: June 01, 2021, 05:12:52 PM »

I wouldn't quite agree that the combat tree isn't viable for Ordo (or [Uber-Redacted]) combat. As a matter of fact I have dealt with every challenge the game had to offer using an SO Aurora, with a third of my points in the combat tree. The rest of my fleet being ships I can count on surviving, mostly Medusae and some Conquests to be the anvil to my hammer. That being said I may perhaps fit into the "piloting god"  category (I can feel the hubris coursing through me :V) as I enjoy challenges like soloing stations with afflictors, and as such my piloting experience may not be the norm.

Really, Remnants aren't really unique in the sense that they die like all the rest to double srm pods and heavy blasters/[Redacted], and with the incredible mobility of the SO Aurora comes the ability to play like an absolute madman. If you're willing to do a little savescumming it's quite easy to rack up the piloting experience needed to handle even Remnants, and if you have the piloting experience necessary it's quite worthwhile to invest in Combat skills, because otherwise you can't fight toe-to-toe with officer-manned ships.

Edit: Fair point on the spoilers, though I feel the food reference is sufficiently obscure :V

5

General Discussion / Colony Proximity Accessibility

« on: May 28, 2021, 07:06:21 AM »

So, we all know that accessibility is important due to how it multiplies your market share, and thus, your income. One of the primary contributors to accessibility is proximity to other colonies, but I can't seem to find what the actual formula is for calculating the proximity bonus? That is to say, if I were to build another colony in addition to a pre-existing colony in the system, how much accessibility would I gain? Is market size relevant? Is the gain less based on how much proximity bonus the colony already has? I've tried looking through the game files but I can't seem to find the actual rules for this important aspect of colony placement, and thus I wanted to ask if anyone here knows how it actually works?

6

General Discussion / Re: Simple poll: Do you like the old skill system or new skill system more

« on: May 06, 2021, 11:24:35 AM »

While I do like some things about the new skill system, I also feel like there are far less options available for different builds, in particular when it comes to combat skills I feel like the skillbuild has become rather one-dimensional. Elite skills are cool, but they are just a story point tax for combat tree players, which feels a bit strange.

7

Announcements / Re: Starsector 0.95a (Released) Patch Notes

« on: April 21, 2021, 11:45:28 AM »

Say, what happens to ships that have safety overrides on as an s-mod from a previus patch? Are the mods automatically removed?

8

General Discussion / Re: Is high payout bounty just not viable?

« on: April 13, 2021, 04:03:15 AM »

For me the secret ingredient is s-mod safety overrides; it's in all honesty not my preferred gameplay, but if you slap safety overrides on a fury or an aurora and fill up the flux with heavy blasters you get a fleet of ships that will shred anything, regardless of how outnumbered you are. I also like adding a squad of medusae for distraction/20% speed since they are incredible at staying alive with the extra charges on their phase skimmer.

Overall high bounty isn't really about how large your fleet is, it's how well you minmaxed your fleet to abuse the new s-mods, skills and officers, since you cannot rely on numbers to save you. There is also a story ship and some weapons you can get from the hypershunts that are worth sacrificing a good portion of your fleet for.

9

General Discussion / Re: Re: Impressions about skills in 0.9.5

« on: March 31, 2021, 09:53:22 AM »

The key difference is that in survival games, hunger mechanics serve to encourage you to play the game. If you succeed at the gathering/hunting/crafting/whatever, you get to satisfy your hunger/thirst/whatever. But in Starsector, even a flawless victory is a net loss in CR and supplies. So instead of encouraging you to engage in the core gameplay (which is combat, as stated by the dev), the mechanic instead forces you to take periodic breaks from it in order to resupply. Which in the current version mostly takes the form of picking up a load of drugs in Hybrasil and distributing it to nearby pirate colonies with zero risk or effort in order to make piles of cash to buy supplies with. While trading can be fun in some games, the trading mechanics and economy in Starsector are so simplistic that it quickly becomes little more than a chore. Overall I find the only challenge CR provides is to my patience.

I don't quite get this one. In starsector supplies are not truly a limiting factor, as a matter of fact I tend to go supplies positive from every fight due to salvaging and post-battle loot. The game does not force you to trade in the slightest unless you completely lack restraint in regards to how many ships you deploy in combat. And that is the point of CR, beyond discouraging kiting; it makes the player consider how much of their fleet they need to use for various combats. As a matter of fact I tend to seek out fights when I go exploring in order to pick up additional supplies and fuel.

10

Suggestions / Add a way to change officer portrait

« on: January 21, 2021, 06:15:50 AM »

There are times (especially with additional portraits installed) where I would enjoy being able to customise my officers by changing their portrait to one I feel would suit them better, for example, changing a pirate-looking officer to a tri-tachyon portrait for when you're doing a tri-tachyon playthrough. While you can go into the files and do this manually, I feel like it would be nice to add it as an official feature.

11

General Discussion / Re: Ship tier list

« on: January 10, 2021, 04:46:47 AM »

An Afflictor can be an amazing ship in player hands, depending on the player and the situation.  However, they also are very intolerant of player mistakes.  I wouldn't solely rely on it in an iron man run, for example.  And even player piloted afflictors can struggle against campaign high tech bounty/tri-tach fleets or redacted fleets.  So saying they're the best single ship in all combat situations (which is the typical meaning behind a SS rating in a combat context), is probably not correct.  There are counters, and those counters exist in actual campaign play.  And certainly for some things outside of combat, like trading, it is a sub-optimal ship.

TT bounties are primary targets for Afflictors - getting that Astral out of commission before fleets even meet counts for a lot, same for normally hard to catch Herons. Dooms are genuinely dangerous though, unphasing around them without having dropped speed to zero in advance is a potential instant death. Need to be very aware of their positions and reach.
Redacted are not Afflictor's bane either. You can't directly kill a Radiant with Reaper Afflictor in non-suicidal manner, but you can ALMOST kill it with Reaper Afflictor and then safely finish the job with AM Afflictor. Or just use AM from the start, though that would be slow vs up-skilled armor.

There are very few situations when AM Afflictor really can't do anything. As someone noted, Xyphos spam would be a problem, but you probably still could pick off ships that got too far from carriers. Afflictor is also NOT good at soloing high tier space stations - stations have near perfect overlapping 360 coverage, so there is often no safe attack trajectory that won't get you killed/badly damaged in 2 seconds needed to rephase. But in almost any fleet combat situation Afflictor can kill many times it's DP worth of ships.

Fleet composition-wise my goal is up to 5 Afflictors, a player capital (Conquest, Odyssey or some fast mod capital), officer-piloted capitals/cruisers + carriers, logistics. A few reserve player ships of other types optional.

Requiring logistic usefulness as part of SS rating would be silly imo - no ship can have both top tier combat performance and logistic profile.

Note that while afflictors are not an ideal option for soloing stations, they are very cheap compared to the usual station-busters, and if you're willing to save scum a bit reaper afflictors make for an exceptional early game method of removing stations. Stations periodically lower their shields even in the face of phase ships, and with a bit of finesse you can slip in a reaper barrage right under their shields and then take cover between modules, where only smaller weapons can get a bead on your ship while you recharge your phase coils. It's very finicky though.

12

General Discussion / Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?

« on: May 02, 2020, 12:31:08 PM »

Try and get your hands on an Odyssey then Impetus! It has a great burst system and good firepower. Hard to find though...

I'll do so! It seems I forgot the Odyssey had a rework and changed ship systems, thanks for the recommendation.

13

General Discussion / Re: favorite flagship for each stage of the game?

« on: May 02, 2020, 10:59:08 AM »

I'm the kind of player that values burst speed super highly (since I play like a madman), so my favorite is the Wolf for early game, Medusa for mid game and then begrudgingly switch to a Paragon once the firepower of the earlier two is outmatched.
I also like cheesing stations and capital ships with pin-point reaper deliveries using a few Afflictors.

For modded playthroughs my priorities are much the same, but this time around with my favorite ships in each weight class; the Versant, the Desdinova, the Nevermore and the Pandemonium. In particular the Desdinova is a beloved ship that I've used to solo entire fleets by abusing the incredible mobility the ship system provides. I honestly consider the Desdinova's ship system to be just as good as actual teleportation (i.e. the Hyperion), since you can easily boost up to people and unleash short ranged, flux-efficient fury in the form of shredder batteries in their face and then get out even when you're sitting at max flux.

14

General Discussion / Re: Colony income seems low for the investment

« on: July 27, 2019, 02:09:52 PM »

Well, I'd say you were right about colonies getting pretty good after a while, since I'm now sitting on a colony with 175 000 income which supports the heavy industry quite well. I would say that it does indeed become worthwhile eventually, just like you guys said, even if it does feel rather pointless when you are starting out. Also, the reason I was using commerce is because I changed it to structure (which might is probably cheating but seems fine to me). Anyho, thanks for the advice !

15

General Discussion / Colony income seems low for the investment

« on: July 26, 2019, 05:13:31 AM »

I decided to give the rebalanced colonies of the latest patch a try, and they felt rather anemic in my opinion. To start a colony, not to mention a profitable one, you have to spend a considerable amount of time and supplies to survey systems until you find a good one, and then buy a starliner or something similar so that you can pay a thousand crew, two hundred supplies and a hundred heavy machinery. That's not an inconsiderable expense, but a fairly minor one in comparison to the costs of the actual colony.

When you have your newly started colony you need an industry, for example mining. I colonised a planet (125 hazard) with abundant ore and rare ore in addition to plentiful volatiles. Sounds amazing, right? In the previous patch this kind of planet would be a goldmine, but the reward for the 100 000 credits is an income of a paltry 15 000. That would be acceptable, since roughly 10 months to make a profit is doable, but a colony needs more than that. A patrol hq is 300 000 for a defense which can't handle a raid, and the upgrades cost more and take one of the few industry slots you have. So you continue upgrading your colony, funneling millions into it hoping that it will be worthwhile, 300 000 for a megaport, 250 000 for a spacestation, 450 000 for commerce and so on and so forth. The reward is more than doubling my income, which is roughly 45 000, excluding the heavy industry (which provides benefits beyond money and excuses the negative income) and the refinery which gives a few thousand as it's income in return for 215 000 credits. I could go on, but I believe my view on things is fairly clear: Colonies seem like a massive moneysink for an income which is worse than a commission and far worse than regular bounties.

That being said, this could be because I use mod factions and nexerelin, so the market is perhaps harder to conquer than it usually is, so I would like to hear your thoughts on the profitability of colonies.